Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission has launched an official investigation into possible anti-competitive practices in the country’s lottery market following complaints lodged against one of Mexico’s main public lotteries by the gaming arm of Mexican media giant Televisa, which launched its own lottery division last year.

Against a background of rising concern over higher rates of taxation for private gambling operators in the country, Mexican media giant and gaming operator Televisa is asking the government’s regulatory watchdog to sink a bid by one of the two main public lottery companies to launch a new bingo game via television and the internet.

While casinos continue to be prohibited in Mexico, a change of policy by the Mexican authorities has allowed the introduction of gaming machines similar to US class III slot machines.

Politicians and operators are calling on the Secretary of Government to establish a firmer policy to tackle illicit gaming as the Mexican gambling industry looks back on a year of significant legal and market developments.

Media and communications giants are gunning for the Lotería Nacional, following a January Supreme Court decision that effectively opens up the Mexican market.

Mexican media conglomerate and gaming operator Televisa is reported to have asked the Government’s permission to offer bingo games over terrestrial television channels. The company is also aiming to persuade the Government to amend plans to impose a new 20 percent corporation tax on gaming companies.

Potential benefits from Mexico’s rapidly expanding gambling industry are being squandered because of the non-implementation of the 2004 law that welcomed many new operators to the market, participants at a meeting of Latin American gambling regulators in Monterrey concluded yesterday.

The Mexican gambling market continues to be transformed as CIE obtains a licence from the government to open a further 20 bingo halls and betting shops.

Mexico’s finance minister has announced plans for a 50 percent rise in gaming tax as part of a major raft of fiscal reforms, while also proposing the merger of the country’s two public lottery operators in a further cost-saving initiative.

An additional 20 percent tax on gaming services proposed by the Mexican Government threatens to choke a much-anticipated boom in the Mexican gambling market.